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Food Swaps to Avoid High Intolerance Foods | Peggy Wright
Food Swaps to Avoid High Intolerance Foods
As I listened to several speakers at the Menopause Summit a few weeks ago, the idea that certain foods cause inflammation kept coming up again and again. These were medical doctors who moved to functional practices to widen the options for meeting the needs of their patients. Instead of a pill for every ill, they discovered that many imbalances can be addressed by removing certain foods from the diet. 
They called these high intolerance foods: gluten, corn, soy, eggs, dairy, peanuts and artificial sweeteners - all the ones I had to remove from our family meals years ago for healing from autoimmune and leaky gut. 

It can be so difficult to learn to cook a whole new way. Here are some substitutions we find work well to keep the flavours we love with a new set of ingredients!

Here's what I often use instead: 
Gluten - can cause chronic inflammation that leads to symptoms like stubborn weight gain, bloating,
joint pain, and headaches.
Substitutes: millet flouralmond meal, coconut flour, arrowroot starch, gluten-free oats - millet flour is great for thickening and almond meal is a favourite base for baked goods like muffins and cookies. For noodles we like quinoa pasta for its texture and nourishment. We love these crackers: Simple Mills Almond Flour Crackers, 482 g | Costco (costcobusinesscentre.ca) 

Corn - the highest GMO product that elevates blood sugars and causes inflammation. 
Substitutes: Grain Free Tortilla Chips for nacho chips, Rice Wraps, Green Superfood Wraps, spiced almonds for snacks, protein bites

Soy - can mimic estrogens and cause hormone imbalance. 
Substitutes: Almond Milk, Oat Milk, Milkadamia, Hemp Milk or Coconut Milk instead of Soy Milk. Try to find a version without food gums since their inclusion can create digestive problems. Chocolate without soy lecithin - Made Good Chocolate Chips, Cocoa Camino Chocolate is ethically sourced and fair trade. Mint chocolate lovers might join me in loving this one! 

Eggs - can be an awesome source of quick, easy protein, but for many of us with chronic illness, they can be a source of abdominal cramping, fatigue, headaches and uncomfortable bloating.
In Baking, substitute: Flax Egg - 1 tbsp Flax Meal in 3 tbsp Water for baking recipes.

Dairy - If you have any of these symptoms: skin breakouts, sinus congestion, headaches, and gut issues - take a break from dairy for a few months to let it out of your system to see how you feel. 
Substitutes: For Cheesy sauces try Coconut cream with pureed cashews in water. Sprinkle Yeast Extract like Parmesan on Spaghetti. Daiya has improved its flavour for a grated cheese option. The kinds of milk listed above work well on cereal as a milk substitute. 

Peanuts - as a legume, they can often impact people with candida imbalance and create inflammation. 
Substitute with other nuts and seeds. Costco has a great nut and seed blend that we love for flavour and better pricing. It works well to replace peanut butter in recipes. If nuts are an issue, look for a seed butter you can tolerate. 

Artificial Sweeteners - sucralose or aspartame for sugar, you might be surprised to hear that they are linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other serious diseases. I also have to be careful with sugars or grains that convert to sugar due to the candida connection to chronic fatigue syndrome and Fibromyalgia.
Substitutes: Raw honey, Pure Maple Syrup, Stevia, Krisda Monk Fruit Natural Sweetener and Coconut Sugar.

Nightshades: - Eggplant, Tomato, Potato, Peppers are high in lectins and many people with autoimmune do best by limiting or eliminating them.  A Comprehensive List of Nightshade Vegetables - Gundry MD 

Cheers to eating to heal!


Here are some family favourite recipes that avoid these sensitivities: 


For more on this topic, this is an excellent article: Top 10 Most Inflammatory Foods to Avoid - DrJockers.com

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My Story - Turning Health Challenges Around

 
I was twenty-two years old and felt like 90. 

Every day I would get out of bed not knowing if I could make it to my 4th year classes. 
Some days I would shower and by the time I finished I felt dizzy, sleepy, and my muscles felt like lead. Sometimes I would be so weak that I had to crawl on all fours back to my bedroom to lay down again. I would get 12-14 hours of restless sleep that would leave me feeling like a truck hit me. I ached all over and my head felt like it would burst with the pounding pain. I was really sick - for months... and then years.    

My adult life was just beginning and I'd been handed a life sentence of chronic illness.   

I got married that fall to Lance Wright, my very supportive and understanding husband. He and I talked about taking a year off - no schedule - to allow my body to recover. I was on a downward spiral and had no answers about how to turn it around. My world shrunk - fast.  

But as my outward world shrunk, I was determined to grow my inner world through reading, prayer, and writing. I knew the diagnosis I'd been given wasn't the end of my story. I trusted that I'd find the steps needed to heal.   

One day as I was asking God to heal me, I got a picture in my mind of a drooping flower bound tightly by weeds. A flash of understanding came with it. I felt as if God was saying, "Healing will be a slow process. Trust me and I will lead you to part of the weed to loosen its hold and remove its influence." This became the perfect symbol for my wellness journey - bit by bit finding healing steps and feeling life and strength return.  

Part of my wellness picture was uncovering trauma that had taught my mind and body that I wasn't safe. So the safety of my relationship with Lance was the starting point for the hard work of healing. When I would get discouraged about how little I could accomplish each day, Lance would remind me that my full-time job in this season was to heal. After a digging deep process, digestive cleansing, and dietary changes over eight years, I started to gain ground. 

I am 52 this year and feel better than I did in my twenties. Lance and I have raised three young men together and I spent 17 years as a homeschool Mom. I have become passionate about helping people discern steps to get unstuck to move toward health. It feels redemptive to use the years of research and experimenting to shorten the road for others looking for a path forward. Enjoy perusing my blog or follow @pegwright | Linktree for a way to connect. I'd love to pull up a chair at our table and share with you the small steps that are opening doors of possibility for life-giving change.  Let's Thrive - together! 

For a full version of my exploration and self-discovery, read my book 'Opening to Grace' found on Amazon or fromWestbow Press.



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